Freezing Winters by Ankita Taneja
The unusual winters of our lives is approaching
in a manner that it won't let us rest
in our chunky knit blankets
with masala chai in hand.
These winters will freeze us like an ice
and we won't get a hug warm enough to melt,
these winters will not play hide and seek
and will shout 'statue' forgetting to say 'release'.
These winters we won't enjoy snowfall
because it will only hail
so we will instead laugh at it
sipping kashmiri-kahwa in heater-rooms.
These winters I will make aloo pakoras for us
as we read stories of Agatha Christie.
and when you ask me to re-read Neruda's poems,
I'll tell you, 'Honey, this isn't summertime'.
These winters will make us shiver
to leave us wondering
if it's an approaching anxiety attack.
but we won't cry
because if we do
we might freeze in the middle.
Winter wraps its thick blanket around us by Gayatri Ramanezhuth
Winter wraps its thick blanket around us
Foggy mornings
And early nights
Winter is pain, grief and what-ifs.
I feel torn in this place
Where it’s not happy
Not sad
Grey.
When you put yourself
In the same place for too long
You forget the magnitude of the world.
The ground remains frozen
And we live in a daze
Where the ghosts of our past
Play little memory games with us
Telling us to not forget them
To remember them
And to console them.
What do you do with the parts that don’t heal?
Days come and go.
You wake up, you sleep
And you have no memory of what you do in between them.
You realise you are talking to yourself a lot more than you are talking to anybody else.
Stores put out their Christmas goods
And you see your mom make pickles out of the mangoes she stored in summer
Precious how summer still seems seep into our lives.
The child in me
I dress her in sweaters and make her warm cups of chai
I tell her to let go
Of the things that are lost
That they were lost for a reason.
The parts that don’t heal,
You don’t have to pretend they are not there.
The more you hide them away
More will be the hold they have on you.
Wounds need attention.
Winter Fire By The Sea by Jiya Gupta
My winter fire is aflame, quiet at the shore,
Swirling alone at the border of the lengthiest wave.
While my feet soak in salt and sand from the toe nails,
Lengths of warmth from fire have my palms laved.
My eyes burn in a fixed gaze with a zillionth of the quiet blazing fire,
With each splutter, each firefly spark retiring to the dark,
I feel the fireflies gushing between the layers of my skin
And I see me burn whit by whit, till I'm gone entire.
Time carries my smoke to the maroon horizon breaking far end of the sea,
I drift to the rusting ocean edges,
Salt water exudes from the eyes, the flowing blanket thickens at my feet,
I run my palm against the flowing quiver, draining me back in me.
About the poets:
Ankita Taneja is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in English Literature from GGSIPU, Delhi. She is passionate about narrative storytelling and poetry and uses it as an engine to tell the ‘why(s)’ behind life by threading her own experiences. Poetry, she believes, is a painting that speaks. On gloomy nights, she describes herself as a miserable little pile of ideas and half-written Google docs. You can find her on Instagram @lifeasanku
Gayatri Ramanezhuth is a BCom graduate currently pursuing CS. She started writing poetry because she has a hard time sharing how she feel and writing for her is the easiest way to do so. Embroidery is her only other passion in life. You can follow her on Instagram @nay_roast
Jiya is a senior-year high school student based in Ahmedabad, India. When not juggling with assignments, she finds herself devouring films, literature and stories in all forms. Sporadically, her dreams, experiences, musings, all spill out in spurts of rusty poetry. Writing to her seems like a natural channel to document what usually goes unexplained. Find her on Instagram @reverietry
About the artist:
My name is Sanno Singh and am an illustrator and a graphic designer by profession. My academic background is Bachelors in Multimedia and Masters in Graphic Designing. After working for a while with Graphic Design studios, I realised that illustration is what I wish to build my career in and since then I have been working as a freelance illustrator and designer with several brands. Apart from illustration, I like to spend my time reading stories and books. You can follow her on Behance / Instagram @titbits_of_art